7 Most Useful Design Tips to Develop A Successful Mobile App

Just Total Tech

21 Jul 2015

Having a mobile app to grow business is necessary. To design a successful mobile app, you need to keep in mind a few basic guidelines. Many businesses have mobile apps, but all of them are not successful, In fact there are only few which we can list under successful mobile app.

Everyone is not getting success in designing a mobile app because they are just making it because everyone is making. But as every business is different, every mobile app also has different use and different goal. While designing an app for your business you need to keep in mind user experience also.

The app development company which you are planning to hire for this specific project should be experienced and technically sound. Due to which they should be also concentrating on the essentials for completing the task. If you are planning to showcase the killer app which tricks all the boxes of consumers, then it could be easier than most of the people expectations.

Have you ever thought that how do they design for success? If not, then a saying by Steve Job, suggests that “Design is not just what it feels and looks like but how it works”. Given 7 essentials will definitely clear your idea of how to design a successful mobile app.

1. Understand the target audience

For whom you are designing the app? – For your customers right. Then first thing you need to consider before developing an app is understand the users. You already have a targeted audience; understand their behavior, needs, habits, communication pattern, problems, how they interact with other apps of same feature etc. So that you can get clear idea of what should be there in your app.

If your target audience is normal people then the app will have different features. It you are targeting business and enterprise then it would be different. If you are planning for sellers then the design will be different. So understanding your audience is baseline for developing an app.

Understanding your customers gives you a framework in which you need to design your app. You can decide the design, features, looks, animation and other things to design an app. You can explore the customer base and after launching an app you can target new audience as well.

For instance, Instagram was launched to cater photographers and for socially connected people. Who thought it will help to promote E-commerce and business? None of us thought. So what I mean is focus on your base audience and once you launch the app you will get a chance to explore the ideas. Focus on designing a habit forming app.

2. Battery should not drain due to an App

When phone design was basic, it was possible for users to go 2-3 days without charging as the main reason was calling and messaging only. But with android and iOS is it possible? Not really.

When designers are working on any applications they should check out that how much battery it utilize. Battery life for the mobile app is essential. You need to minimize the services of locations, unnecessary animations and background task etc. It could drain out the battery of the device- something which users are not going to appreciate.

No user plans to download a new app as to know that all the battery has been drained out. Always remember that developing the native app for every platform will be delivering the best outcome in terms of attracting users than the mobile app web.

4. Keep Simple Design

Keep it simple but different and useful. It plays an important role when it comes to the success of an app. Apps are made to complete tasks, and reduce the processes. So in mobile apps, less is more and important. The design should be efficient.

The design should not be cluttered with so many feature indicators. You can check many successful apps and their designs, so you can get idea how you can make your app user friendly. Provide users a path of instructions to help them access. User interface should be convenient.

Bottom line is it should be user-friendly, view should be appealing and navigation should be easy. Keeping a simple yet useful design increases user experience and lead to success.

4. Adaptive Design

Consumers are going to appreciate the platform which is bespoken and with high performance. Over here appropriate iteration could make use of the native weaknesses and strengths for every device. Ensure a less generic product and the one which would be quite appealing to users across the Globe. It helps to increase user experience.

5. Plan for The Offline Experiences

In case your app requires the online access, you should consider that what’s going to happen when connectivity is not at all available. You should plan for the scenarios when the connectivity is not at all available. You should consider the behavior of the applications that what would not be provided when it goes offline.

In case if you are developing an app similar to Twitter where new tweets are downloaded when the users opens the apps, questions like whether the old tweets should be stored and opened when apps open or it should not be showcased. All such scenarios need to be thought off and decided upon that how to manage it.

Offline connection to features and content provides a powerful advantage and grant you to continue improve user experience which is crucial for app success.

6. Develop for More than One Platform

To make a successful app, it should be accessible from all the available platforms. If your app is limited to one platform, you yourself restricting your users from using it from other platforms.

So prepare your app accessible from Android, iOS, and windows, the three major platforms. To make it easy you can go for cross-platform app development also. It will reduce both time and costing associated with developing it separately for different platforms.

7. Free of charge

Make your app available for free of charge. It should be free. No one likes to pay, everyone like free downloading. Specially, at an initial level never launch chargeable app. They are also making an experiment by downloading your app, so everyone likes free experiments only.

It is beneficial for you as well. If it is available for free, more and more people will download it. So at the end of the day your app is getting promoted. It increases your chance of success. Once a user downloads it, then they’ll decide whether to stick with it or switch to other.

This doesn’t mean you can’t make it monetary. If you want to make money, offer basic features for free. If users like your app, they’ll happily pay for premium features. In that case there is win-win situation for user and for developers. You can also make money from ad section.

Bonus: Interface is the King

GUI has always played a remarkable significance, when you are targeting on the mobile apps. A remarkable idea with no design is not going to land-up anywhere. Tips for good design are as under- you should bear that a great programmer or the software company many not necessarily should have a remarkable design. You should invest in design and hire remarkable visual designer and UX design.

Conclusion:

The dynamics over creating software have been changed over the years. To design a successful app you need to clear the basics starting from understanding your users to make it available for free to promote your app.

Designing an app is different task. But before designing you need to groundwork, and above mentioned 7 keys will guide you to develop a successful app. Also pass all the details to app developer so that they can implement your idea of designing an app the way you thought about it.